AllTrips is focused on helping you to navigate the digital marketing world by bringing you the very best tools to drive direct bookings. This includes keeping you up to speed on what’s happening now and any big announcements or changes that you may have missed.

We have compiled 5 of the top digital marketing and travel news stories in the travel industry for the summer/fall issue.

Don’t rely solely on OTA’s: By leaning too heavily on OTA’s as a primary source of online bookings, we forget that those who book directly through you stay longer, are more loyal, and buy ancillary services. Our takeaway: SEO and Paid Ads can get you more direct bookings from better qualified leads.

A travel app from Google. Google launched its Local Guides earlier this year causing some waves in travel related organic search. But now, it has addd a new product to the travel arsenal. Trips a travel app, aims to help plan trips based on proximity to reservations and destinations thus improving organic search in destinations. Reviews, accurate location data, verified map location, an updated Google My Business account and a reservation system can sway organic search. What does this mean for you? Google Street Viewsand Local SEO are going to help you get discovered now more than ever. Are you up to date?

Travel Marketing is more confusing than ever. Even when you (sort of) know what you’re doing it can make your head spin. What do you do about it? Check out our WebMRI, an easy to read audit on for your website and marketing presence. Your AllTrips advisor will discuss the results and help you navigate areas like Managed Ad Campaigns and growing your SEO.

Virtual Tours are going big. Google kicked things off with the virtual tour and cardboard launch last year. But now more businesses are looking into how it will help grow their industries. Travel included. Local organic search rankings can be vastly improved with a Google Street View 306 virtual tour.What’s our take? Get on the map now and give yourself a boost before the next busy season.

Have you read the news lately?This year we are focusing on bringing you the best digital marketing tools to drive more direct bookings. That also means we need to stay in the know of what is trending in the tourism-marketing world.

Here’s what’s been going onTo keep you up to speed on what’s happening now, and on top of any changes coming, we have compiled 5 of the top trends in the travel industry so far this year.

Google has made some travel specific updates. Earlier this year Google announced some big changes to its methodology as well as announcing a few new offerings in the travel world. They have rolled out some major changes like Destinations, ad blocking, removing side ads, Local Pack, and analytics upgrades. You need to know how it will affect your travel business. Our takeaway: stay up to date with SEO, reviews, and NAP location data, and they will take note. Read more on Destinations, Local Pack and changes to Analytics.

Experience it. This year is going to be a huge disruption for OTA’s. More and more businesses are moving away from the reliance on OTA’s. And travelers aren’t using them either. They want an experience – experiential travel is the trending term. Millennial travelers, family adventurers and Travelers are looking for an alternative to the traditional way of traveling. Share your unique experience and make your business stand out as authentic. Check out the Top 2016 Travel Trends.

Mobile is taking over. Mobile is the fastest growing travel trend, and has been for the past couple of years. We’ve seen a uptick of around 49% for lodging and 47% for activities in mobile search. The search and planning phase on mobile is where it’s at. And a good place to start is by making sure your website is mobile-friendly, its easy to book directly on your site, and your Local-Mobile search data is up to date. See how mobile is affecting travel.

Build a loyal following. Reviews aren’t going anywhere; in fact they are being shown in more places than ever. Around 75-90% of travelers read them. Take advantage of the audience you have to grow your loyal audience and share their experience. It helps you grow your loyal followers and word of mouth marketing with little to no investment. The best kind of ROI! Read more here.

Content is the new SEO. We all know SEO coupled with content is one of the most important pieces to successful web presence. But it’s time to re-think the way you use your words. Focus your efforts on content marketing in places like blogs, personalized posts in social media and review responses, content on your site beyond the about us area, and search descriptions. Not to repeat it, but anything that is focused on mobile search will boost your awareness too. Find SEO tips here.

We hope this helps you plan your strategy to get ahead of your competition this summer. AllTrips can help with each of the above topics and help drive direct bookings with our Digital Marketing Solutions. We are just an email or call away.

As always, we appreciate your partnership,
The AllTrips Team

P.S. if you want to know what blogs we follow, check out our list here.

We like to stay in the know of whats happening in the travel industry to be able to help you, our clients, grow your direct bookings and get the best ROI. Our eyes are constantly on the lookout for articles and updates about whats going on with search engine updates, new technology changes, traveler seasonal trends and more.

If you want to stay up-to-date as well, here are just a couple of our favorite blogs to follow when you get a free moment (free time – what is that).

HubSpot – one of the best, curated top lists of sales tips, marketing advice and more.

Learn time saving social media secrets that you can apply to your social media strategy today. The first 100 participants will be able to listen live, so sign up early! If you don’t get a spot, we will send a recording afterwards.

One of the key elements for more direct bookings is a good reservation system. Travel planners are increasingly seeking out availability and the convenience of booking availability and in one place, your website. If you don’t have a good reservation system in place yet, here are a few suggestions we have on where to start your research.

There are several things to consider when choosing a booking program. A short list of what we recommend includes:

Compatibility with Google Analytics (very important!) – this should always be a big consideration in any website addition or update.

Mobile Friendliness – As more and more people have mobile websites, having a mobile reservations system in increasingly important.

Customization and Technical support – does it offer a good, seamless user experience with your existing site? Do you have someone to contact conveniently by phone and/or email to help you.

Back End Functionality – much different than the user experience for the Client. Does the reservation system just take reservations or does it also allow you to manage different parts of your business. It can be especially important to manage other areas outside of a booking such as housekeeping, maintenance, guides, boat numbers, followup and feedback, etc.

OTA integration – does it work with the large booking websites you partner with?

Lodging Property Partners
First up are the lodging properties – big and small. It’s an important first step in travel planning that people want to know where they will lay their head. And many want to book with you directly for a personalized experience.
For the smaller lodging properties we like to recommend the following programs.

Resnexus – they are mobile friendly and they have just added the ability to use universal tracking code .

Roommaster – they interface with OTAs but they are still working on a mobile friendly release. The other downside that it needs to be hosted on an onsite server.

Open Hotel – a highlight aside from being a great fit for properties with any room amount and varying room styles, is that you can also easily create custom landing pages for packages & specials and promotions. This company offers great support via chat, phone and email and integrates with OTA’s and conversion analytics tracking.

For you larger properties we have two proven solutions for you.

Ihotelier/TravelClick and Sabre. You can’t go wrong with either one. They are compatible with OTA’s, are mobile friendly and offer most of our major criteria above.

Fishing Guide, Outfitter and Activity Partners.

For many guides, outfitters and activity providers a simple, custom form on your website which securely accepts payments can work. But if you want an online booking program the two we recommend are

Xola. Our team has worked primarily with this program. While they are easy to setup and maintain as well as are mobile friendly, they don’t have an analytics option.

Adventure Office – these guys also mobile friendly capability and you can add analytics. The drawback is it will only work for one domain. But not a big problem for most small outfitters.

You might also check out Rezdy and Resmarksystems. We don’t’ have experience with them yet so cannot make a full analysis for you. If you check them out we would love to hear your feedback.

Fishing Guides – well you’re in luck. There are several systems that have been designed specifically for your market. They are limited in some capacities such as analytic tracking but they do offer additional guide management for all your employees.

Whether you are ready to sign up for a reservation system today or just starting the research process, we are happy to help discuss some options. We want to see you grow your travel business through more direct bookings.The AllTrips Team

In early 2015, AllTrips set out to bring two awesome families to the Yellowstone and Jackson Hole area. We wanted to share some of the highlights with you all and share a “Thank You” to some amazing partners that helped make these trips happen.

The Barber Family

Tim Barber was nominated by friends for his service to his country and his family through our AllTrips Gives a Trip giveaway contest honoring past and present service members. Tim, his wife Robin, and daughters Adia and Teagan, spent the 4th of July in Jackson before a year long deployment. We were honored to be able to offer this trip to such a great family and want to thank Tim for his continued service for our country.

“We had a wonderful time during our visit to Jackson Hole. From the time we stepped off the plane till we got back on it again felt so unreal. Jackson Hole is so beautiful that it felt like it was too good to be true. I still can’t believe we were even there. The people and the tour guides at all of the activaties were amazing and very knowledgeable. Having tour guides that knew the area and what to see and not see really made our trip. We had a blast doing it all. The only down side is we couldn’t stay longer.I just want to thank you and your team at AllTrips for making this trip so memorable for us. Without the contest I’m not even sure I can say we would have ever been able to go to Wyoming. This was a trip of a lifetime. ”
-Robin Barber and The Barber Family

We need to say a big THANK YOU to our amazing partners for making this trip possible. You all really made this trip special!

Wil From Virginia

Our second trip was spent sharing the area with Wil, a 9 year old Make-a-Wish kiddo traveling from Virginia with his mom, dad and little sister. Wil was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma about 2 years ago. He was excited to see and explore the Tetons in person and fishing the Snake River. We made all of that happen and more!

We were so lucky to work with the following partners to make this a special trip for Wil and his family.

Stay Tuned!

We will be announcing our 2016 Trip Contest later this fall in connection with the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service next year to celebrate all of our destinations across the west.
If you want to help be a part of making 2016 special, please contact Carli at carli@alltrips.com

Expedia recently released a list of top properties that make up their 2015 Insiders’ Select list. The list celebrates the very best hotels and resorts worldwide based on more than 2 million guest reviews over the year.

We wanted to take a moment and recognize those properties within the AllTrips family that made the list. Congratulations to you all. Your hard work has been recognized by so many. You truly deserve the honor.

If you missed our webinar last month all about online customer reviews, you’re in luck! The recording is ready.
Learn why reviews are so important, how to use your review emails, how to respond to reviews, and more.

We want to extend a sincere THANK YOU to everyone for their incredible nominations. We loved reading about all of the amazing men and women in your lives. We are so grateful for all each of you do to serve and support those serving. It was a hard decision and we would love to thank each of you in person if we could.

Tim Barber and his family have won our AllTrips 2015 Yellowstone/Grand Teton Trip Giveaway. Thank you to Heidi Radunovich for your nomination.

Tim’s Story:“Timothy Barber has served his country in the Army, as well as in the Reserves. He has had two deployments to the Middle East, which were very hard on him, his wife, and their children. His wife recently lost her sister, and in addition to their own two girls, has now taken in her daughter. He will be deploying again soon to Africa for a year. This family has been through a lot in the last few years, and even though they have been working hard, money has been tight and Tim has missed time with his daughters. It would be wonderful if they could have a great vacation together before his next deployment.”

You can follow along on our Facebook page as we share more details about the Barber family’s trip. We’ll be sharing stories about our amazing partners and guides , the adventures of the Barber family, a few stories form the family, fun photos and more as we welcome them to one of our most favorite places.

If any of our nominees are looking for help planning a trip to one of the many National Parks in our network, let us know by calling 888-733-1093 or by emailing us at help@alltrips.com. You can also get some great advice by reaching us on our live chat forum or leaving a note on Facebook. We’re happy to help get you started on a memorable trip out west. You can see some of our packages at www.AllYellowstonePark.com/packages

And don’t forget – we will be announcing our 2016 National Park 100 year Celebration Contest details later this year on Facebook. Stay tuned for more adventures and chances to win!

Again, THANK YOU for all of your incredible nominations. We not only appreciate the service the men and women you wrote about but also you, their friends and family, for supporting them through their journey.